U.S. President Barack Obama is proposing higher taxes on the wealthy and
corporations along with cuts in government spending as he submits his
$3.8 trillion 2013 federal budget to Congress.

Mr. Obama outlined his budget priorities Monday at a community college
near Washington, highlighting his push to boost funding for the
education needed to help students get the technical skills needed to
land good jobs.

He says the spending plan is aimed at stimulating the economy in the
short term and cutting the federal deficit by around $4 trillion over
the next decade. He proposes raising taxes on corporations and wealthy
Americans and trimming government spending. The budget covers the 2013
fiscal year that begins in October, just a month before U.S.
presidential and congressional elections.

Congress
has to approve the budget before it can become law, and members of the
opposition Republican party are sharply critical of Mr. Obama's budget
priorities. The ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Jeff
Sessions, said the Obama budget is full of “budget gimmicks” that
overstate savings and understate costs. Republicans in the House of
Representatives are preparing their own budget proposal for what will
highlight the differences between the major parties' approaches to taxes
and government spending during this presidential election year.

Mr. Obama's budget plan includes $1 trillion in spending cuts required
by an agreement between the White House and Congress last August to
address the federal deficit and raise the country's debt ceiling.

The agreement also set up a committee to find ways to trim the deficit
by an additional $1.2 trillion over the next decade. But the committee
failed to reach a deal by their November deadline, setting up massive
automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs scheduled to begin in
January 2013.